Posted on 10/24/2007 2:14:19 AM PDT by Aristotelian
Independent experts have pinpointed what they believe to be the Euphrates River site in Syria that was bombed by Israel last month, and satellite imagery of the area shows buildings under construction roughly similar in design to a North Korean reactor capable of producing nuclear material for one bomb a year, the experts say.
Photographs of the site taken before the secret Sept. 6 airstrike depict an isolated compound that includes a tall, boxy structure similar to the type of building used to house a gas-graphite reactor. They also show what could have been a pumping station used to supply cooling water for a reactor, say experts David Albright and Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science and International Security.
U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs yesterday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked. Israeli officials and the White House declined to comment.
If the facility is confirmed as the site of the attack, the photos provide a potential explanation for Israel's middle-of-the-night bombing raid.
The facility is located seven miles north of the desert village of At Tibnah, in the Dayr az Zawr region, and about 90 miles from the Iraqi border, according to the ISIS report to be released today. Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, said the size of the structures suggested that Syria might have been building a gas-graphite reactor of about 20 to 25 megawatts of heat, similar to the reactor North Korea built at Yongbyon.
"I'm pretty convinced that Syria was trying to build a nuclear reactor," Albright said. He said the project would represent a significant departure from past policies. ISIS, a nonprofit research group, tracks nuclear weapons and stockpiles around the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Except the photograph itself.
I read that U.S. intelligence provided vital, pre-attack site information to the Israelis.
Maybe...
...but residents from Dayr az Zawr said they heard sonic booms, but no ordnance explosions.
If thunder is audible out to 7 or 8 miles, then one has to wonder why a supposedly clandestine attack flew within hearing range of a brightly lit large city, to strike a target tens of miles away.
Further, access roads/trails to AD launcher sites have a distinct pattern when viewed from the air, why didn’t the imint analysts here report such details?
Finally, reporters from Hareetz (or another top Israel media outlet, memory isn’t aging so well) said they tried to access the site, about 5 miles from Dayr az Zawr, but were turned back at a military checkpoint.
Maybe these guys found the place, and maybe not, but so far the details aren’t jibing as well as I’d like.
one thing is certain
EVERYONE involved is very tight-lipped about whatever happened.
this is the oddest part of all of this.
Agreed! Why use “cameras” when a thousand-word description of the scene is just as good?
"When the Israelis destroyed Saddam Hussein's research nuclear reactor in 1981, the consequence was that Saddam Hussein pursued his program secretly. He began to establish a huge military nuclear program underground," he said. "The use of force can set things back, but it does not deal with the roots of the problem."
Isn't ElBaradei that bald UN idiot that 's always been wrong about everything so far? Of course a muslim will find nothing good to say about Israel.
What an ass.
eLbARAdei is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Ain’t that grand.
1) They know that it was atomic. And despite the illusionary fantasy of "Arab brotherhood", when my neighbor whom Allah should bless with all the stars in the sky sudden gets deadly stuff that will kill me, I'll keep quiet while those bastards the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE pound it into the sand.
2) It looks like the Israeli's flawlessly put black ops strike teams on the ground without any kind of blip, where they painted the site with lasers for smart bombs, and then recovered them, leaving only foot prints. Take that, you smug whiny towel-headed bastards. Cross us and you're next.
Google "Rods from God". Just sayin'.....
Considering that Syria’s Russian made air defense system went “blind”, I’d guess that we supplied more than intel....but what do I know....
No, something came in from NK, and that something was taken out by Israel. Apparently neither the Syrians nor NK can call the police about the incident.
...and whatecver it was that came in from North Korea, came in on a ship loaded with cement.
Reactor vessels are made out of....?
Why...?
Two ways to look at it.
1. Everybody is remaining silent for personal reasons. Bush, Olmert, Assad, Chiapethead, Khameinei, Putin, Brown, Sarkozy, all these have space based sensors or ready access to the facility itself. Pelosi, Clinton, and a few others got briefed by Bush. Either every single one of them has similar or different compelling reasons to remain silent or...
2. Something scared the hell out of every one of them.
My money’s on “both”.
i’m with you on that one...
Have a look at:
Lat: 35°42’26.91”N
Long: 39°49’59.23”E
And post what you think. I measured off about seven miles (6.8 by google) to the north of At Tibnah and found a large square building the right size.
What do you all think?
I have examined the site you located on Google Earth. To be a graphite reactor for producing plutonium, the site would (eventually) have a reprocessing facility quite close to the reactor building. Such a facility would most likely have an arrangement of heavy concrete-shielded ‘hot cells’ which would appear as thick-walled, roughly square cells, edge-to-edge in a roughly linear fashion. Such a facility does not now exist in the photograph. The site would also have near-by locations for solid waste and liquid waste disposal/storage. These wastes would be extremely radioactive and would have to be reliably isolated from the near-by Euphrates River. These waste sites might be located at two or more of the partially-developed areas north of the reactor building.
If this is, indeed, a plutonium production facility, currently under construction, it is nowhere near operational. That’s good. Also, it probably has very little or no radioactivity on site. This would have been dispersed (probably contaminating the Euphrates) if subjected to a massive air strike. Thus, there would have been good reason to strike before such consequences became inevitable.
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/SuspectSite_24October2007.pdf
here is a link that has the pictures.
You can’t tell much though.
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